I'd say it's more due to matching the touch screen rivals from BN and Kobo on price, as well as the iriver story HD coming to Target on Sunday. This way they can show new buyers the same price as the others (but not the cheaper Kobo), while promoting the 3G feature. Then, of course, none of the store displays list the fact that the low price means it comes with ads.

The Seattle-based company will also release two updated versions of its popular Kindle electronic reader in the third quarter of the year, the people said. One will be a touch-screen device. The other won't have a touch screen, but will be an improved and cheaper adaptation of the current Kindle, said people who have seen the device.

I'd say it's more due to matching the touch screen rivals from BN and Kobo on price, as well as the iriver story HD coming to Target on Sunday. This way they can show new buyers the same price as the others (but not the cheaper Kobo), while promoting the 3G feature. Then, of course, none of the store displays list the fact that the low price means it comes with ads.

Probably not. They also announced a touch screen model as well at a tablet. They have plenty in the pipeline to keep other readers considerably back from first place. As interesting as the Google reader is, I just have no interest in yet another WiFi only model, and I already have a perfectly good keyboard. They already stated in the press release for the iRiver model that they are going after new (less sophisticated) users.

Wow, does this mean my old model with those great Oil of Olay ads is a rare collector's item? I think I'll get it on ebay and sell it for a quick $500.

The Seattle-based company will also release two updated versions of its popular Kindle electronic reader in the third quarter of the year, the people said. One will be a touch-screen device. The other won't have a touch screen, but will be an improved and cheaper adaptation of the current Kindle, said people who have seen the device.

Interestingly, that article has been rewritten and it now omits the bolded sentence above, among other things. But many blogs had already quoted the original story. Here's a blog entry discussing the rewrite.

It's not I don't like touch screens but some people see my kindle and immediately press the screen with their smudgy fingers.

these folks you're referring to 'see' with their fingers huh? i'd keep a hold of it if it were my kindle that one of these folks wanted to 'see'. really, how rude people can be. and for the record i detest 'touch screens'.

It's not just the "old" guys who don't like/want a touchscreen on their e-reader...

I've owned several of the touchscreen models and to be honest touchscreens on eInk or pretty slow. It is not as responsive as an iPad or Android tablet that have LCD screens. I came to realize that I could accomplish nearly any ereading task just as fast if not faster on the Kindle as on the touchscreen eInk readers. A lot of that probably has to do with the UI being so elegant and user friendly on the Kindle and not so good on many of the touchscreen ereaders. I'm sure screen refresh has a lot to do with it too. About the only two things I could do faster on any of the touchscreen ereaders was that some of them have a long press that automatically selects a word and then brings up the dictionary. The other is selecting a book to open. That is definitely faster on the touchscreen if the UI was designed well. But overall, I find I get things accomplished a bit faster on the Kindle.

Having said that, Amazon should definitely come up with a better trackpad system. The current one is way too small for fat fingers and way too sensitive.